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Organizing media

The Assets tab holds every file uploaded to the open project, and this page covers the folder tree, the two views, and what you can do to a file once it is in there.

The Assets tab

The tab is split in two.

Left — Asset Browser. A type filter, the folder tree, and below the divider either the details of whatever is selected or the upload drop zone. Drag the divider to give the tree more or less room; the split is remembered.

Right — the file area. A breadcrumb showing where you are, the upload and folder buttons, the view controls, and the files themselves.

Filtering by type

The segmented control at the top of the sidebar filters the file area:

Filter Shows
All Everything in the current folder
Meshes Models only
Images Stills only
Videos Movie files only

The filter narrows the grid or list only. The folder tree underneath keeps listing everything, so a folder's count badge does not change when you filter.

There is no text search

The Asset Browser has no search field. Folders and the type filter are how you narrow a large library — which is a good reason to name folders for how you will look for things, not for where the files came from.

Folders

The folder tree

All Assets at the top is the root. Everything sits under it.

  • Click a folder to make it current — the file area and the breadcrumb follow.
  • Click the chevron to expand or collapse it. Folders with nothing in them have no chevron.
  • The number badge on the right is how many files sit directly in that folder.
  • Which folders are expanded is remembered for you personally, across sessions.

Folders nest as deep as you need. Files and sub-folders both appear under an expanded folder in the tree.

Creating a folder

Either:

  • Click New Folder in the file-area header, type a name in the field that appears, and press Enter (Esc cancels), or
  • Right-click empty space in the file area or the tree and choose New Folder. The folder appears named "New Folder" and immediately in rename mode — type over it and press Enter.

Either way the new folder is created inside the folder that is currently selected, so select the parent first.

Renaming a folder

Double-click its name in the tree, type, and press Enter. Esc cancels.

Moving files between folders

Drag any file — from the tree or from the grid or list — onto a folder row in the tree. The row highlights when it will accept the drop. Drop onto All Assets to move a file back to the top level.

To move a file without dragging, use Move to Folder from its right-click menu or from the toolbar in the details pane. Both show the whole folder tree as an indented list, with a bullet marking where the file currently lives.

A folder is also a drag handle

Dragging a folder that contains media onto a playlist adds all of that folder's media in one go. Only files directly inside it come along — sub-folders are not included. See Playlists.

The breadcrumb above the file area reads All Assets › Parent › Child, followed by the number of files currently shown. Every crumb except the last is a link — click one to jump back up. The last crumb is where you are.

Grid and list

The two buttons at the far right of the header switch views. Your choice is remembered for you personally.

Grid shows a thumbnail per file with a type badge in the corner, the name, and one line of detail underneath — the pixel dimensions for a still, dimensions and duration for a video, and the file size for anything without dimensions.

The slider next to the view buttons sets tile size, from 2 to 12 columns. Drag it right for bigger tiles, left to fit more on screen. It only appears in grid view.

List is a table, better for comparing files or scanning a large folder:

Column Contents
Name The asset name
Resolution Pixel dimensions, or vertex count for a model
Type Image, video or mesh
Format The file extension
Size File size
Created The date it was added

Selecting and keyboard navigation

Click a file to select it; its details fill the lower half of the sidebar. Click empty space to deselect.

With the Assets tab active and no text field focused:

Key Action
Up Down Move the selection between rows
Left Right Move the selection along a row (grid view)
Home / End Jump to the first or last file
F2 or Enter Rename the selected file in place
Esc Clear the selection

The selection scrolls into view as it moves.

The details pane

Selecting a file fills the lower sidebar with:

  • A preview — the still itself, a video player, or an orbitable 3D view for models. Hover it and click the expand button to fill the screen; Esc closes that again.
  • The name. Double-click it to rename.
  • A row of action buttons: rename, duplicate, replace file, move to folder, delete.
  • A metadata table: type, format and size, then the type-specific numbers, then when the file was created and last modified.

Video the browser cannot decode shows its thumbnail and a codec badge here instead of a player — see Uploading media.

File actions

Right-click any file, in the tree or the file area, for the same set of actions the details toolbar offers.

Action What it does
Rename Turns the name into an editable field. Enter commits, Esc cancels.
Duplicate Makes a copy in the same folder, named after the original with copy appended.
Replace File… Swaps the file behind the asset while keeping its name, folder and everything it is wired to. The picker only offers files of the same kind.
Move to Folder Opens the folder list; pick a destination.
Delete Asks to confirm, then removes the asset and its file.

Replace File… is the one to reach for when content changes late. Anything already pointing at that asset — a surface, a playlist item — keeps pointing at it, so a new cut of a video drops straight into an aligned, cued show without rewiring anything.

Deleting removes the file too

Delete takes the asset and the uploaded file with it, and it cannot be undone. When you delete from the details pane, the confirmation adds a warning if that file is the model a surface is currently built on — read that line, because deleting it empties the surface.

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